Emerging markets will dominate medium term growth in mobile broadband subscriptions for PCs and modems, accounting for over 80% of connections by 2018, according to Strategy Analytics.
The firm predicts that by the end of this year there will be 260 million mobile broadband data plans linked to PC/modems worldwide, and this will increase to 418 million in 2018.
Service revenue will grow from $52 billion in 2014 to US$64 billion in 2018. Data traffic will increase from 7.6 billion terabytes in 2014 to 16 billion in 2018. Meanwhile, LTE will be a key driver of value across all regions, accounting for 74% of 2018 global service revenues and 71% of data traffic.
"LTE will be a catalyst for growth, fulfilling connectivity needs with larger, lower cost-per-GB data plans. Portable Wi-Fi hotspot routers will be an important product for 4G, tapping into the rapidly expanding installed base of Wi-Fi enabled portable devices in many households," said Susan Welsh de Grimaldo, Director, Wireless Operator Strategies.
Phil Kendall, Executive Director, Wireless Operator Strategies, and author of the report, said that alongside a bullish outlook for emerging markets, some developed markets will return to growth as niche fixed broadband alternative opportunities emerge and pricing flexibility increases.
"Smartphone and tablets have hit demand for modem connectivity in many developed markets over the last 18 months, either as users migrate basic mobile computing use to these devices, or as the smartphone becomes the modem via tethering," he said.